Two federal immigration officers fired their guns during the weekend's fatal shooting of armed anti-ICE protester Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, a preliminary Department of Homeland Security review of the encounter found. The two officers fired ten shots at Pretti, killing him on the scene. However, the report doesn't mention the gun owner taking out his weapon.
Pretti, 37, and another woman were blowing a whistle at officers, and refused to leave the street on Saturday despite multiple verbal warnings, prompting an attempted arrest, the review on Tuesday said. "The woman and Pretti did not move," according to DHS, which prompted a Customs and Border Protection officer to pepper-spray the pair.
Almost a Murder
When Customs and Border Protection officers attempted to arrest him, Pretti — who was armed with a loaded Sig Sauer handgun — resisted, leading to a physical struggle. During the confrontation, a Border Patrol agent was heard yelling, "He's got a gun!"
About five seconds later, one Border Patrol agent opened fire on Pretti. A CBP officer also fired his weapon during the scuffle.
Video of the incident shows at least 10 shots were fired altogether, though it remains unclear whether Pretti's own gun discharged.
According to the review, a Border Patrol agent later informed other federal officers that he had secured Pretti's Sig P320 after the shooting.
Federal agents then tried to give Pretti emergency medical aid. The 37-year-old, who worked as an ICU nurse, was pronounced dead within about 30 minutes of the encounter.
An autopsy is now being conducted by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office.
Bitter Truth
The DHS review was compiled from body camera video and other Customs and Border Protection records. Those initial findings have been sent to the congressional committees responsible for overseeing the Department of Homeland Security.
The report also noted that this was the second time in the past month that an anti-ICE protester was fatally shot in Minnesota.
Earlier, 37-year-old Renee Good, a mother of three, was killed on January 7 when an ICE agent shot her after she blocked a street in Minneapolis with her vehicle and then drove toward the agent.
"I think the whole thing is terrible," President Trump said of Pretti's death Tuesday, during an appearance on Fox News. "I don't like the fact that he was carrying a gun that was fully loaded, and he had two magazines with him — and it's pretty unusual, but nobody knows when they saw the gun, how they saw the gun, everything else.
"Bottom line, it was terrible."
Trump decided on Monday to replace Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino as the leader of "Operation Metro Surge" in Minneapolis and to pull some of his agents out of the city in reaction to the recent shooting.
"We have Tom Homan there now," Trump told "The Will Cain Show," noting that his border czar plans to "de-escalate a little bit."
